Practical paths towards quantifying and mitigating agricultural methane emissions
This review summarizes the rapid advances in direct practical methods to quantify and reduce agricultural methane emissions worldwide. Major tasks are location, identification, quantification and distinction between different specific sources (often multiple emitters such as manure pools, animal housing, biodigesters and landfills are co-located). Emission reduction, facilitated by developing methodologies for locating hot spots, is the least-cost choice for action, especially from manure stores, biodigesters and from controlling biomass burning. Agricultural methane can also be used to generate electricity or, in appropriate circumstances, can be destroyed by oxidation. It may be possible to cut North American, East Asian and European emissions sharply and rapidly. In Africa and South Asia, emissions from crop waste and food waste in landfills, also a source of air pollution, can be sharply and quickly reduced. Globally, cutting total annual agricultural and waste emissions by a third would demand reductions of very approximately 75 Tg yr −1 . Apportioned by source type, notional cuts might be 30–40 Tg yr −1 from livestock and manure, 5-10 Tg yr −1 from rice cultivation and 20 Tg yr −1 or more from specifically agricultural waste.
Authors
- David Lowry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8535-0346)
- Aliah al-Shalan
- Charlotte Scheutz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2218-5934)
- Julianne M. Fernandez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5137-6620)
- James L. France (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8785-1240)
- Semra Bakkaloglu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0476-1929)
- Martin Manning (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2628-6089)
- Euan G. Nisbet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8379-857X)
- Rebecca Fisher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9262-5467)
- Sylvia Michel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5651-1163)
- Peter B. R. Nisbet-Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3332-9905)
- Thomas Röckmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6688-8968)
- Grant Allen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7070-3620)
- E. J. Dlugokencky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0612-6985)
- Xin Lan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6327-6950)
- Charles Brooke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2612-6141)
- Hugo Denier van der Gon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9552-3688)
- Sonja Leitner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1276-8071)
- Ceres A. Woolley Maisch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5070-145X)
- Lutz Merbold
- R. Ellen R. Nisbet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4487-196X)
Institutions
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US)
- Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (US)
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Victoria University of Wellington (NZ)
- Agroécologie (FR)
- Quality Research (US)
- Agroscope (CH)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- International Livestock Research Institute (KE)
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2024.0390
- Citations
- 10
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 11.05
Funders
- Alborada Trust
- Leverhulme Trust
- Sight Research UK
- European Commission
- Natural Environment Research Council